Emily Wight is a blogger, food hacker and now cookbook author, fashioning short cuts and imaginative solutions to mealtime dilemmas.

The collection of wacky fusion meals that populate her book Well Fed, Flat Broke feels as though it could only have been written in East Vancouver. Wight reimagines the relationships between meat, fish, eggs, legumes, pasta and rice in a Commercial Drive-style mash-up of cultures and flavours.

Wight is a specialist at taking pantry items and a few of her favourite condiments and creating dishes that are flavourful and easy on the wallet. Here are some of her ideas:

Three easy food hacks:

• “I love to braise. It usually takes a few minutes to prepare and then you just shove it in the oven and when it comes out three hours later everyone thinks you are amazing. Curries, pork shoulder are good choices for this method.”

• “Cook off a pot of grain such as barley at the beginning of the week and you can incorporate it is into dishes from stirfries to soups. Brown rice is so annoying and time-consuming to cook on a weeknight because it takes an hour. It’s just better to have it cooked off on Sunday.”

• “Cut the vegetables for the week while you make Sunday dinner. It’s so nice to have the onions and the carrots all done and waiting for you. I keep a few containers and just throw them into things through the week.”

Three overlooked ingredients

• “Spam has this weird reputation as a kind of a mystery meat, but it’s actually really great. It’s so salty you get a lot of flavour without having to do much to it. It’s like bacon in that respect. Often under $4 a can, you can easily feed four to six people.”

• “A can of beans stretches everything. My favourite is black-eyed peas, they are earthy and No Frills has had them on for 77 cents a can this week. Breakfast Beans go great on toast, topped with an egg.”

• “Canned tuna now comes in sustainable versions, such as line-caught albacore tuna from the West Coast. It’s a great protein source and one that you can stretch a long way in a pasta dish. The Tuna Penne includes recipe-extending beans, too.”

Must-have condiments

• “Sambal Oelek and Sriracha add heat and flavour for just pennies. Use them in fried rice, salad dressing or soup. Or throw one on the table instead of ketchup.”

• “I have eight different mustards in the fridge. It’s great on its own as a simple marinade for meat or mixed with a little lemon juice on greens. Greens love mustard.”

• “Gochujang is a fermented Korean soybean chili paste that deepens the flavour of soups and stews. It’s richer and stinkier than chili sauce alone.”

“This dish is a treat — we don’t eat it very often; twice a year, maybe, as a lazy date-night indulgence. If you want to make it healthier, use brown rice. But Spam is what makes this magic; don’t sub it out for ham or bacon. If you haven’t eaten Spam in a while, try it again, and don’t let the smell of it right out of the can put you off — this dish is tasty, I promise.”

2 tbsp (30 mL) canola, divided

1 tbsp (15 mL) sesame oil

12-oz (340 g) container regular Spam, diced

6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

6 cups (1.5 L) cooked rice

1 tbsp (15 mL) fish sauce

2—4 tbsp (30-60 mL) sambal oelek

6 scallions, chopped

4 eggs, beaten

salt, to taste

2—3 scallions, chopped, for garnish

In a pan on medium-high, heat 1 tbsp (15 mL) canola and sesame oil. Add Spam and cook until browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Add garlic, and cook until just golden, another 3 minutes or so.

Add rice, fish sauce, sambal oelek, and scallions. Stir to integrate Spam and garlic into rice and to coat the rice in fat and sambal.

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Blogger’s cookbook a tasty East Vancouver mash-up

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